Managers are hitting the panic button as the No. 1 player in fantasy football suffered a hamstring injury on Thursday Night Football, leaving Carolina Panthers rookie RB Chuba Hubbard set to carry the load. With the hand firmly on the panic button, what kind of impact should fantasy football managers expect from Chuba Hubbard moving forward?
Christian McCaffrey suffered a hamstring injury early on Thursday night
Break that glass. Send up smoke signals. Pop flares. Call in the military. Sound the alarms. We have hit a potential crisis and are now at Defcon 1.
The No. 1 player in fantasy football, Carolina Panthers RB Christain McCaffrey, suffered what is being referred to as a hamstring injury. The injury happened in the second quarter with the Panthers up 7-0 on the Houston Texans. McCaffrey went to the blue tent and was almost immediately ruled out by the team, as reported by Erin Andrews during the broadcast.
Usually, a player goes questionable, gets evaluated at the half, and then is ruled out. That was not the case here as it was early in a close game, and the decision was made almost immediately.
At the time of his injury, McCaffrey saw his usual massive workload: 7 carries for 31 yards with 2 receptions (2 targets) for 9 yards.
We will have to closely monitor the news in the coming hours and days as to the severity. Fantasy managers are having flashbacks, unfortunately, as McCaffrey missed 13 games in 2020.
Chuba Hubbard is a talented back who slipped in the 2021 NFL Draft
When the Panthers drafted Chuba Hubbard with the 126th overall pick of the 2021 NFL Draft, he was an insurance policy. He was necessary addition as a competent backup behind McCaffrey after Mike Davis, who filled in during 2020, left in free agency. Yet, I don’t think they were expecting to see this happen when they filled in his draft card.
Hubbard is no slouch. He is a world-class sprinter and had one of the best performances in recent history in 2019. As a redshirt sophomore, Hubbard played in 13 games, rushing 328 times for a nation-leading 2,094 yards and scored 21 touchdowns. He also added 23 receptions for 198 yards.
Hubbard was a unanimous All-American, the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, a finalist for the Walter Camp Player of the Year Award, and one of three national finalists for the Doak Walker Award. In fact, he rushed for over 100 yards in all but one contest.
After surprising many by returning to what seemed to be a talented Oklahoma State team, Hubbard disappointed in 2020. He played in seven games and had less than a third of the totals from the year before. He rushed 133 times for 625 yards and scored 5 touchdowns. Additionally, Hubbard caught 8 passes for 52 yards and a score.
What can’t be overlooked is the situation that surrounded Hubbard. Oklahoma State played 13 different offensive line combinations thanks to injuries and opt-outs. They had no passing attack, with both QB Spencer Sanders and WR Tylan Wallace missing games.
Because of his disappointing season, Hubbard slid to the fourth round of the draft, allowing the Panthers to get a potential mid-round gem.
Hubbard will assume RB1 duties for the Panthers
Hubbard has been in a steady rotation in the backfield in the first two games of 2021. Well, I guess “steady” is a bit misleading. But when you have McCaffrey averaging nearly 30 touches a game, there isn’t much left to go around.
Nevertheless, of those scraps, Hubbard has been the primary recipient. In Week 1, he caught both of his targets for 4 yards while playing on 7 offensive snaps (11%). In Week 2, he saw a significant increase in reps. Hubbard carried the ball 8 times against the New Orleans Saints for 10 yards while also receiving a target.
With how good the Saints are as a defense, it’s difficult for anyone to find success — unless you are McCaffrey — let alone a rookie in his second game while seeing only 25% of the snaps (19).
The Panthers have been one of the fastest-rising teams in recent power rankings and have one of the more brilliant minds in OC Joe Brady calling plays. Regardless, no matter how good Hubbard is, this will be a significant drop-off in terms of production.
What kind of impact will Hubbard have for fantasy?
For one, if you were not already rostering Hubbard but drafted McCaffrey, did we not learn from last season? Were we expecting this? Of course not, but like any good prepper getting ready for the apocalypse, you can’t be caught with your pants down. Hopefully, you had Hubbard stashed away for a rainy day.
If he is out there on waivers, Hubbard must be the top waiver claim in Week 4. Even if we find out McCaffrey is out for a short period of time, it does not matter.
I do not expect Hubbard to receive anywhere close to the 30 opportunities per game that McCaffrey has seen with the Panthers. He is built differently and is the exception. It’s more likely we see Hubbard as the lead back but ceding some opportunities to Royce Freeman. Hubbard is likely in the 14-17 opportunity per game range and in the low-end RB2 to high-end RB3 conversation.
The upside stems from his truly elite-level speed — once he hits the secondary, Hubbard will never be caught from behind. He has homerun upside but can struggle with vision at times and was a liability in pass protection. The best hope is Hubbard is a band-aid until McCaffrey is back, not a long-term solution.